FFirestone Walker is launching Mind Haze, its new hazy IPA, in the UK.

The beer, which launches in mid April, is the culmination of time spent tinkering with the style, retooling and refining the beer with several R&D batches.

Brewmaster Matt Brynildson said he and his team wanted to put their own stamp on the style and create a beer that would stand shoulder to shoulder with Firestone Walker’s other IPAs in terms of quality and shelf stability.

For Brynildson, the hazy IPA style doesn’t just have roots in the East Coast of the US, but all the way back to southeastern Germany and the Bavarian Hefeweizens of lore.

“I recently spent some time at Gutmann brewery in Titting, and they have this amazing beer called Weizenbock,” he said. “It’s this beautiful 7.2 percent ABV hazy beer with a creamy mouth-feel and a tropical-banana aroma that fits right in with the hazy IPAs of today—and yet they’ve been making it for more than 50 years.”

He added: “We’re not relying on residual yeasts or starches for turbidity. The haziness and mouthfeel of Mind Haze are cultivated by more stable means, namely using 40 percent wheat and oats in the grain bill while nailing the timing and interplay of our hop additions.

“We are drawing from our past experience in making Hefeweizens, and then aiming to amplify the esters gained from a specially chosen yeast and an array of really fruity hops.”

The branding of Mind Haze is a nod to the marine mists that routinely envelop California’s Central Coast—and to the idea of a beer that messes with perceptions of what a hazy IPA can be.

He said: “We are not claiming to reinvent the style—we want Mind Haze to offer the best of what people expect from a hazy IPA. That said, we’re going about it in a little different way, and I think that’s what gives Mind Haze its own unique signature.”